Justin: So after work on Friday Feb. 11th Stacey and I piled my backpack into the Kia and headed to Greenville, SC. You see I had a very early flight to catch the next morning and Greenville is around 100 miles from our house. We originally thought we'd just get up and drive straight to the airport, but I was concerned about Stace having to drive back all sleepy, so we got a hotel room. Interestingly enough, even with the hotel, the savings from flying out of Greenville versus Charlotte was worth it.
Where was I going, you ask? Well, I was on my way to Big Bend National Park in Texas to spend the week floating the Rio Bravo River! Stacey's Uncle Dale invited some of his friends, family, and myself to do a canoe trip on the Rio Grande (we call it the Rio Bravo as it's not too grand) as they did it a few years ago and thought it was about time for a repeat.
The flights were fine - smaller, unfilled planes and an easy layover in Dallas left me landing in Midland, TX with time to spare before the rest of the crew arrived. Midland is a tiny airport - about the size of Terminal A in most cities I'm used to. I hung around outside for about an hour before the convoy rolled up all Blackwater style... well, if Blackwater was a black BMW M3 with a big green canoe strapped across the top and a red Saturn Vue in close pursuit. Dale, Coy, Jim, Gary, and Lee rolled out with hearty greetings and stiff legs from their thousand mile road trip from Kansas City. The other car in the convoy had skipped this leg and was enroute to Marathon, where we would be staying the night at the legendary Gage Hotel. A few minutes later the rest of our crack team arrived from Seattle - Bob and Paul - from Michigan - Bill - and after procuring a rental for them we too were on the road.
First stop: Marathon and the historic Gage Hotel
So after a couple hours of enjoying the scenic view of dirty scrub, rusting machinery, and well, really nothing else, we rolled into the oasis that is the tiny town of Marathon. The town is a couple of blocks long with a few streets of homes and some small businesses and the Gage Hotel seemed to be the largest employer. I'll just give you this link so you can see it for yourself. The images are a little bit nicer than the place however th actual hotel is very nice... http://www.gagehotel.com/
Most of our rooms were in the new "villa" area. We all rested some then got cleaned up and went to their restaraunt for dinner. GOOD FOOD. I got the chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes and Stacey's brother, Lee, described it best: "That looks like a catcher's mitt!" No joke - it was huge.
That night was cold. Like in the 20s cold. Luckily there were heavy blankets in the room so other than just getting back to the room, it was pretty comfortable. After traveling all day and with a tummy full of good food, I slept like the proverbial rock.
Sunday morning we all gathered in the dining room for breakfast (very nice) and then rounded up our lil posse for the couple hours drive down to the park. It wasn't long out of Marathon when the scenery started to improve. Plateaus and buttes started rising up out of the ground in the distance, finally giving us something to look forward to.
Inside the park the speedlimit was 45, so it took a while to wind down and around to our outfitters - Far Flung Outfters http://ffoc.net/ - in Terlingua. We paid for our canoes and I bought a boggen as I had left mine in Charlotte and it was going to be still chilly at night. Now our convoy is big truck and trailer longer with a couple hours yet to the river.
More next post.
Photos from everyone: http://s1103.photobucket.com/
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